The two wind farms seeking to terminate their Massachusetts power purchase agreements may have to forfeit tens of millions of dollars, according to the House’s energy leader.

Rep. Jeffrey Roy of Franklin, the House chair of the Legislature’s Telecommunications, Utilities, and Energy Committee, said Commonwealth Wind would forfeit $48 million and SouthCoast Wind would lose $60 million. The money would go to the state’s three major utilities, and likely be rebated to customers.

The money was required under the terms of the power purchase agreements the wind farm developers signed last year with the state’s three utilities. The developers now say their projects can no longer be financed under the deals because of inflation, rising interest rates, supply chain disruptions, and the war in Ukraine. The companies are seeking to terminate their projects and rebid them in the state’s next offshore wind procurement in 2024. The Healey administration has said little, but seems supportive of that approach.

“I know [the developers] are negotiating that with the utilities currently and we’re hopeful that’s going to be resolved soon,” said Roy on The Codcast. “When the bids come in, I fully support the notion that we should not preclude them from bidding on the next round because there aren’t many players in this space.”

Joseph Curtatone, the president of the Northeast Clean Energy Council, sided with Roy that the companies should not be prevented from competing in the next procurement, as a prominent state senator had suggested. “We should not be punitive,” he said. “We need competition.”

New York state appears to be taking a different approach. Wind farm developers there are making the same argument – that their projects are no longer viable because of changing economic conditions — but they are asking that the existing contracts be amended to provide more funding. In other words, no penalties – just more money.

That was the solution originally pursued by the wind farm developers in Massachusetts, but the state’s utilities and the Department of Public Utilities refused to go along. One utility, Eversource, said there is no mechanism in Massachusetts to amend a contract once it has been approved by the DPU. Eversource also noted the last procurement operated under a price cap that limited how high the price could go. The price cap won’t be in play with the next procurement.

Roy said the upshot of all the maneuvering over power purchase agreements is likely to lead to more delays and much higher prices. He said the state must proceed, however.

“It’s still necessary for us,” he said. “When you look down the road, the cost of not achieving these goals and the cost of rising waters and more damage from climate change and global warming are very much higher than the cost of getting these turbines up and built.”

Curtatone said the contractual mess in offshore wind is only a temporary setback. “These are not failures,” he said. “These are headwinds.”  

Roy agreed. “The offshore wind industry is not in trouble by any means. We’re going to experience some delays,” he said. “Our hope to get a lot of offshore wind by 2030 is probably not going to happen. We’re looking closer to 2031, 2032, so that’s a roadblock but it’s not the end of the road for offshore wind.”

BRUCE MOHL

FROM COMMONWEALTH

The Ludlow School Committee is taking up a book-banning proposal this week that would bar sexually explicit visual and written content and leave enforcement to the school committee itself. Read more.

OPINION

Brownsberger comes out: Sen. William Brownsberger of Belmont celebrates Pride month by coming out – as a bisexual. Read more.

Raise standards: To address the police recruit shortage, Jim Jordan, the retired director of strategic planning at the Boston Police Department, calls for raising – not lowering – hiring standards. Read more.

Home care best: Joseph McDonough of Innovive Health says the best place to treat many behavioral health issues is in the home. Read more.

FROM AROUND THE WEB

MUNICIPAL MATTERS  

Kency Gilet, a two-time candidate for city council in Springfield, moves to Longmeadow, scrubs his old conservative social media posts, and runs for school committee as one of three candidates vying for three seats. (Western Mass Politics & Insight)

WASHINGTON/NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL

Law enforcement officials are bracing for former president Donald Trump’s first court appearance tomorrow in the federal indictment against him. Trump has called for protests in Miami, and some allies, such as former Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, have alluded to the potential for violence. (Washington Post)

ELECTIONS

The Mass. GOP under its new leader looks a lot like the party under its old leader – riven by bitter infighting and chaos. (Boston Globe) 

BUSINESS/ECONOMY

It’s not just would-be homebuyers who are sometimes finding themselves in bidding wars – the phenomenon is now hitting the Boston area rental market. (Boston Globe)

Holyoke buildings bought for cannabis business purposes have been sitting idle for years as the legal marijuana market softens. (MassLive)

EDUCATION

Harvard’s new president, Claudine Gay, is regarded by colleagues as an unflappable, steady hand. (Boston Globe)

The Paulo Freire Social Justice Charter School is closing after 10 years. MassLive dives into the years of mismanagement that drove down attendance and tuition revenue, weakening morale and test scores.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE/COURTS

A Boston police officer was shot and wounded on Friday night in Roxbury, and a 23-year-old Brockton man is under arrest and charged with shooting him. (Boston Herald) 

PASSINGS

Ted Kaczynski, the Harvard-educated loner and math genius who became known worldwide as as the Unabomber, killing three people and injuring 25 over a 27-year span with homemade bombs meant to further his cause of collapsing the modern, technological social order, died by suicide in a federal medical prison center at age 81. (New York Times)